Bills You Can Say Goodbye to When Traveling Long Term

We’ve all heard of how Westerners drop everything to just travel the world. Crazy, right?

Obviously, that isn’t the same thing for many of us living in third-world countries, getting third-world paycheck. But, you know what we realized? Traveling full-time isn’t really that expensive despite our minimal salaries. We went on a crazy 22-day adventure in Mindanao — and we would have gone longer, actually — and we certainly realized a lot of things.

Think you can’t let go of bills when you travel full-time, well, think again. Here’s what you could possibly say goodbye to:

1. Mortgage

Thing is that we are still starting out as a family and are still paying for our mortgage (one more year for our equity, yay!). But, if you have been slightly established, you can always have your house/unit sold or rented out so you can finally say bye-bye to monthly payments. Isn’t that cool?

Okay, that doesn’t mean you won’t be spending money on accommodations but you can lower down your payments enough so you could afford to travel full time.

hoping to move here very soon!

2. Home Maintenance

And, because you aren’t tied down to one place, you don’t have to worry about home maintenance, too!

AirBnBs, hotels and inns and serviced apartments will obviously no longer let you worry about maintenance so you can stay for months or even years without having to worry about anything. Of course, if you do happen to create a major damage to your room (not likely) then that will be something else.

3. Car Payments

You have two options for this: (1) you can either bring your car around on a road trip around the country or the world (and reduce your expenses on accommodations) but this also means that you have to think about insurance and maintenance, or (2) you can also take the public transportation which is awesome for sightseeing and meeting with locals.

4. Utility Bills

Utility bills are usually calculated into your daily room rates so you don’t have to worry about fluctuating bills every single month. Yay! This would apply to electricity and water bills. You might also want to make sure that you get a good Internet connection wherever you are staying at so you don’t have to worry about not being able to connect and work.

5. Gym and other Memberships

I’m not really into gyms and don’t have any other memberships of some sort. Travel encourages me to walk more and since we backpack, that means a total body workout for everyone. Or, if you’re not really that type, you can always do your stretches at your hotel’s gym. Saves a lot of money!

6. Entertainment and Leisure

Even the most basic accommodations are already equipped with cable TV so you can say goodbye to your entertainment subscriptions. Leisure and entertainment? While we don’t really scrimp on awesome and incredible experiences, we try not to go for every attraction being offered in a particular city. Trust me, it can really add up especially if you are staying for days or even weeks in one place. We are also huge fans of free attractions and we go to nearby parks, playgrounds and libraries for that.

7. Gifts

Souvenirs are a huge no-no when we take trips. They are not included in our budget but, when we can actually squeeze it in, we only buy food and consumable items (making sure that they make it home, of course). When we do meet up with friends who are within the area, we eat out and we sometimes pay for the bill or they do or we split it up.

I actually did a computation of just how much we would spend when staying at home compared to how much we spend when on the road. The numbers are about the same but what I liked about the latter is that you get to explore new places every few days, which is also good for us mentally and physically.

Our ultimate dream is to travel the whole country (and the world), staying at least two weeks at a time in one place. How about you — would you ever consider traveling full time?

About the Author

Pam is an outdoors-loving millennial momma who loves to hike, trek and camp in the beaches and mountains with her partner and their 3-year-old daughter. When not exploring the great outdoors, she moonlights as a freelance writer specializing in the travel, parenting, personal finance and digital marketing niches. You can also follow her via social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest!

12 Comments

I absolutely agree with this post. Although, I’ve never traveled long-term yet (is 12 days considered long-term? Hahaha), I have already thought about all these bills I can absolutely get rid of if I simply want to. Even though I can bring my work anywhere I want to, I can’t just pack my bags and go because I rely on my Internet at home, bisa’g mahal kaayo. Haha. Hopefully, soon I can travel long-term. Cheers to a simpler lifestyle!

I truly agree with blog pots, even I haven’t tried backpacking for 22 days just like what you guys did. The longest backpacking I had was only 10 days and yes, I have said goodbye to some of my bills at home and somehow my bills were getting less.

I have considered traveling the world full time (or long term) with my family but the fact is that my husband is not into traveling and doesn’t even like riding an airplane or going on long bus rides. 😉 We’re very much opposite in that aspect and I just respect and accept that side of him. Haha. So in short, ako ra jud always ang laagan because he lets me travel as much as I want and I don’t like leaving my son for a long time – 10 days was the longest so far, huhu.

Like you, I also don’t feel the need to visit all the tourist spots or attractions in a place. Free parks or gardens make me happy!

Those aspects are really significant when it comes to constant expenses and I’m glad to see that there are advantages in traveling long-term. I only love travel to get away from the stress of work and still would like some form of common point to return to.

I’ve been to many places and countries just by traveling solo which I stayed more than a week example Palawan for 10 and 13 days, Siquijor for 11 days, Dumaguete for 9-10 days, Malapascua and Bantayan island for 12-13 days, Japan and Hong Kong for 17-18 days, Malaysia and Thailand for 18 days. And imagine, I am the breadwinner in the family. I’ve been doing monthly travels since August 2014 until December 2016. In 2017, I still don’t know my plans yet.

This article is like a cheat sheet on how to escape these bills. I really hope that I can travel long term for vacation… I did travel for 90 days in Japan but that’s for work. Though I did escape paying few items on the list but still, traveling for recreation will be much better if given a chance. 🙂